Rest In Peace Prabuddha Dasgupta. The ace photographer passed away last evening after enthralling us with his beautiful photographs, be it on fashion or Ladakh. Dasgupta died of a massive heart-attack while he was traveling in a cab. He was only 51. God bless his soul. Both the designers – Manav Gangwani and Sabysachi Mukherjee requested all for a minute of silence for the legendary Prabuddha before their shows.

Manav Gangwani had a mishap while he was preparing for the Couture Week. His assistant disappeared with all the designs. Gangwani reworked on an entirely new collection and there were flashes of brilliance. A monochromatic collection had sequence in red and as expected, was high on ‘Bling’. For the first time during the week I saw some dramatic elements that I feel is an integral part of a couture show. (Of course there was Manish Arora who had loads of drama in his show.) My personal favourites were the black and white sheer gown with a bejewelled black structure crossing over the shoulders and a short one-shoulder dress with nice lacy applique work. I liked the finish and the fit – a must for any couture ensemble.Manav Gangwani had the Queen of Bhutan – the beautiful Jetsun Pema gracing the front-row in a chic one-shoulder black Gangwani dress. Oh yes Bollywood was there in form of Raveena Tandon, Sophie Choudhry and jewelery designer Farah Khan.

Sabyasachi Mukherjee had one of the most elaborate set – with a vintage feel complete with the ramp depicting a wooden floor. And much to my liking I saw a great deal of ‘newness’ in his collection. But then he stuck to the ‘no makeup’ look and glasses for his models. There were the usual ornate lehengas, long-sleeved blouses and pretty sarees but what impressed me were those long voluminous skirts totally devoid of embellishment in solid colour like green or in colour-blocking technique. Sabya even went for coarse fabric and thick cotton to craft out these maxi skirts that can be doubled as lehengas.Sridevi and her director for their forthcoming movie – English Winglish, Gauri Shinde were Sabyasachi’s showstoppers.